Family Matters

I grew up mainly in Hong Kong. I spent five years in the United States, moved back to Hong Kong for high school, then did my university in Canada and finally moved back to Hong Kong again in 2017. I found a job in hospitality and I’ve been here since then.

Sailing has always been a big part of my life. I think I was probably on a boat since I was born. My dad is from Brittany, the sailing capital of France, so everyone sails there. When I was little, I spent my summers in sailing camps, and when I was in university, I also taught sailing during the summers to make some money. It was fun. I used to sail competitively for Hong Kong, which was a good excuse to miss school and go sailing somewhere else! I caught the sailing bug early, and a lot of that comes from my dad.

My whole family is very big on cooking. Food plays an important role in both French and Malaysian culture and I remember lots of memories of just being in the kitchen, lot of dinner parties with friends over, always lots of cooking going on. Food is core to our family values; I think it’s how you choose to show love in many ways.

Even though Hong Kong is an international city, it’s still very traditional in many ways, and people still hold on to a very traditional definition of ‘family.’ I think ‘family’ extends beyond parental relationships to include friends, lots of friends, like I would consider Doreen family at this point. For me, ‘family’ is simply a constant, ongoing commitment to love, in good times and in bad.